The Endless Orbit
Infinite Orbit
"But I never thought Akasa's disciple would actually appear."
"Neither did I."
The faculty lounge in the martial arts hall was the size of an entire apartment floor. After their meal, the martial arts professors were enjoying teatime, and the main topic of conversation was none other than Akasa's disciple, Lee Seokhyun. The subject was clearly a hot one—every professor had something to say.
"I wonder what kind of conditions made her take so long to choose a disciple."
"Whatever the reason, she must have thought it through carefully. Now she has to show us something worthwhile."
"Haha, of course she will. She's been slacking off until now, so she owes us at least that much."
When the person in question wasn't around, good words rarely followed. Akasa had become the target of the martial arts professors.
'Not that I don't understand.'
For years, Akasa had opened no classes and done nothing under the pretext of searching for a disciple. The headmaster had permitted it, and she wouldn't have joined the academy otherwise. Still, people weren't generous enough to speak while keeping those circumstances in mind. Judging only by appearances was exactly why they had never become grade representatives themselves.
How many people could avoid being criticized when others were determined to find fault? In that regard, Akasa was the perfect prey. She had once been invisible, but now that she had surfaced to take on a disciple, this was the perfect moment to tear into her.
"What right does she have to hide away like that, only to suddenly snatch up a student like some ghost?"
"It's only because the headmaster is so lenient. If she were under me, I'd have given her a proper scolding."
"Haha, Professor, you're the very picture of diligence as always."
"This much is just basic, haha."
"Anyway, it'll all come out during the dungeon evaluation, so this talk is a bit funny."
"Exactly right!"
Hahahaha.
Akasa had been promised every convenience by the headmaster, but even that displeased them. They had been born nobles, enjoyed the privileges of their status, and secured their professorships with ease—yet the moment someone else gained even a slight advantage, they cried out for equality and raised their standards.
'Of course, Akasa isn't the type to care about any of this.'
She would probably just laugh and call it a losers' gathering. Still, Gainard could understand why they behaved this way.
'Because they don't know.'
A peaceful world made everyone complacent. The threat of demons had become nothing more than routine murder cases, and wars between nations had all ceased. He didn't mean to belittle them, but they were talents who had grown up in a peace they had never fought for.
'Because they've never experienced it.'
They had never seen true strength that kept moving even while bleeding profusely, so their mouths were light. They had never faced an unyielding will that refused to turn its back no matter the situation, so their actions remained as light as feathers.
In reality, those who had experienced war—including Gainard—were not participating in the gossip. They knew what Akasa had looked like on the battlefield, how she had become an object of terror. Courage only came when she wasn't right in front of them.
"We really are getting old."
"It's the difference in experience."
After those two short remarks, they stood up. They knew all too well that staying in the same space any longer would only lower the quality of the conversation.
"Oh, Professor Gainard, where are you going?"
"I'm heading to the training grounds."
"Ah… I see. Understood."
One of the gossipers who lacked tact tried to speak, but Gainard cut the conversation short without giving them any opening to continue.
'They'll probably talk even more once we're gone.'
At least they had enough sense to choose their words carefully because people outside their group were present. The moment he left, they would surely start complaining that it made no sense for a sixth-ranked commoner to give the representative speech, and so on.
To think that such rotten mindsets still existed even among professors at Mirinae Academy.
'That's the biggest flaw of meritocracy.'
With that thought, Gainard recalled Lee Seokhyun.
'A peculiar guy.'
After receiving love calls from all the first-year representative professors, Lee Seokhyun had ultimately been chosen by Akasa, the most ideal option. Gainard couldn't even guess what kind of training he was undergoing right now, but one thing was certain.
If Akasa was trying to recreate the version of herself from the battlefield…
'He's going to die.'
He was definitely rolling around like a madman right now. Gainard was certain of it.
Thud.
His body collapsed helplessly, like a puppet with its strings cut.
"Uwaaaaaaaaah!"
"Get up."
His vision was blurry, and the sky looked yellow. Akasa's figure in front of him was hazy, and his hands and feet trembled uncontrollably. This was only thirty minutes after he had heard the name Infinite Orbit and begun training.
"Still, your fundamentals are solid. When I first did this training, I couldn't even last five minutes before collapsing."
This is insane.
He had just realized why there was a training ground near Akasa's residence—it wasn't for her own training. This training ground, which Akasa had personally created to teach Infinite Orbit, had countless functions.
"Puheek… hup…"
The most practical one was that it automatically cleaned up vomit and prepared water in case of dehydration. Of course, he couldn't drink it. Akasa's reasoning—that he would just throw it up anyway—had sounded perfectly reasonable.
"Lee Seokhyun, get up. I've given you praise and even time to catch your breath. Now it's time to train again."
"Yes… kuh… I suppose so…"
No matter how much he coughed, the taste of blood lingered at the back of his tongue. The worst part of this ridiculous training was that he hadn't even properly reached the starting line yet.
Creak, creak, creak.
Only thirty minutes had passed, yet his entire body was making the sound of rusted metal. Crack, pop, crack.
Every joint screamed in agony, warning that moving any further would shatter his bones and kill him.
"It must be hard. It must be painful. That's exactly what Infinite Orbit is."
Infinite Orbit. A power born from the idea of extending one's orbit endlessly forward without stopping. Its core ideology was simple: 'Never fall, no matter the situation.'
The first requirement to realize the insane notion of moving even when one's breath ran out was an incredibly strong body. And "strong" here meant a level far beyond what common sense could even imagine.
'If it weren't for that, I wouldn't be suffering like this.'
First, she made him wear bracelets with weight-amplification magic on his wrists and ankles. When she said they would start at 50kg for the initial stage, he had been shocked beyond words. When he had performed Infinite Orbit as Lee Seokhyun in the game, he had simply skipped the intermediate processes and only checked the final numbers, so of course he hadn't known.
With a total of 200kg attached to his entire body, the first thing he had to do was endure Akasa's beating.
'To push the human body to its limits, you first have to reach those limits, or so she said.'
And the fastest way to reach those limits was through a beating. It had the triple effect of building endurance, mental fortitude, and tolerance to pain. Akasa had beaten him indiscriminately.
What angered him the most was that she stopped exactly right before his bones would break. Her skill in leaving him in a state of having just barely finished an extremely difficult battle without any major injuries was absurd. He wasn't some piece of dough, yet the way she kneaded him so delicately had left him in the perfect fermented state.
That was when he first vomited. Understanding why she had said it was better not to eat lunch, he lifted his head—only to see the floor of the training ground begin moving like a treadmill.
'And so I ran like that for thirty minutes.'
In the end, he had collapsed while vomiting, leading to his current state.
"Seeing you get up, your stamina really is excellent. My eye for disciples is quite reliable after all."
Even with the inner core of the bear king granting him stamina that wouldn't tire under normal circumstances, he had reached his limit. His breath was caught at the top of his throat and wouldn't go down, yet Akasa kept marveling at her own judgment.
"Do you know how someone who can't use mana is supposed to defeat those who can? You have to train yourself to the extreme."
Akasa made the floor of the training ground move again as she continued.
"I heard you defeated all the first-year students in unarmed sparring. But that's only possible in the very beginning. Later, when they've grown into knights and knight commanders, will you still be able to win under the same conditions? Of course not. The gap between those who can't use mana and those who can only widens over time, creating a distance that can never be closed."
Therefore, to catch up, one couldn't approach it with common sense. You can do it. Akasa poured in explanations of why he had to undergo this training and generous praise to bolster his self-esteem, as if worried he might give up. Even though he could never quit no matter what happened here, it was strangely funny how her words still gave him strength.
'Running at 30km/h with 200kg of extra weight…'
The problem was that this still wasn't the real beginning.
"You're doing better than expected. I can speed up the progress a little."
The fact that the gates of hell hadn't even opened yet filled him with despair.